Sanity Slipping
by Ribbond
Summary: What if everything Dean believes in, his life, the hunts, everything, was just a hallucination? Or is his mind being manipulated by someone or something?
1. Chapter 1

Dean's path back to consciousness was marked by Sam's voice. Good, he thought, If Sam's talking then it means he's alright. Whatever happened to me didn't get to him. That brought the second question to his mind. What had happened to him? He tried to remember, tried it really hard, but it was useless. It was like if his mind had drawn a blank.

He started feeling more alert, the words Sam was saying becoming more clear. He wasn't talking alone. Who was he talking to? Dad? No. Dean rejected the thought immediately. It still hurt the think about his dad's death. And now that he strained to hear the conversation better, no way that voice was John Winchester's.

"I thought you said he was doing better" he could hear the anger in his brother's voice. Of course, if something had happened to him, Sammy wouldn't be to happy about that, he guessed.

"He was. Tests from last week indicated he was no delusional and he didn't tried to convince anyone about his…" the voice owner cleared his throat before continuing "quest to hunt supernatural beings"

"Then what the hell happened?" Yeah, Dean knew that tone too well too. Sammy was about to panic, because he couldn't understand what was going on.

"He suffered a relapse yesterday during dinner. One of our nurses gave him his medications and Dean started shouting about how this nurse's eyes were black and about possession. He attacked the nurse while repeating something in Latin, and we had to sedate him heavily before having him escorted back to the infirmary"

What? He had done what? Okay, time to open his eyes. That had to be the weirdest dream, or nightmare, or whatever he ever had. Only thing was, opening his eyes was an easier thing said than done.

"Sam?" Was that his voice? He had barely heard himself. He doubted Sam would have heard him but immediately he heard soft footsteps approaching wherever he was. A hand was gently placed on his shoulder.

"Dean? Can you hear me, man?"

'Yes, Sammy, I hear you. If I could just manage to open…'. Finally he managed to get his eyelids to cooperate and after blinking several times to try and focus, he was able to see his brother's face looking at him with concern, although a tentative smile replace his expression when he saw Dean's eyes open.

"Hey man, you gave us quite a scare. You gotta stop doing that"

Dean tried to nod. He didn't know what he had to stop doing, but whatever it was, if it scared Sam he would try and stop doing it.

"Wha.. what happened?"

Sam looked at him with sadness in his eyes, but it was the voice he had heard talking to his brother before, the one who answered that question.

"You suffered a relapse, Dean. We had to sedate you before you hurt anybody else or yourself."

Dean turned his head so he could see the man speaking. Obviously a doctor, middle aged, not very tall and balding. His face showed sympathy while he talked. Dean's brow creased.

"A relapse? A relapse from what?" He looked at Sam again "What the hell is going on, Sam?"

Sam shifted uncomfortably before answering.

"You were doing really well, but yesterday… yesterday you once again thought one of the nurses was possessed. You attacked him and before they could stop you, you cracked him a couple of ribs"

Dean was beyond confused by now. If he had attacked a nurse because he thought he was possessed, chances were the man was really possessed, right? Maybe he was in the hospital because the Demon had gone after them again, and now was sending possessed people to finish him off and take Sammy… and he had to protect Sammy. He had sworn to his father.

"Sam, was it the Demon? Did it strike again?"

Sam sighed and sat down on the bed.

"Dean, there's no such things as Demons, you know that"

Dean's eyebrows shot up in surprise. How could Sam be making such an statement when he had dealt with Demons, monsters, spirits and ghosts most of his life? He tried to get up from the bed, only to find himself unable to do so, due to the leather cuffs strapping him to the bed.

"Why am I tied?"

He jerked at the cuffs, trying to get his hands free, but with no avail.

"Dean, please, you'll just end up harming yourself" once again the Doctor spoke with a very gentle tone, like if he was talking to a child instead of a 28 year old man. Dean shot him a murderous look

"Well, I wouldn't harm myself if you just took this damned things OFF!!" he shouted, jerking his arms with more force than before. The Doctor seemed completely unimpressed by his behavior, and continued speaking in the same calmed, soothing voice.

"Dean, if you don't calm yourself down, I'll be force to sedate you again. Would you like that?"

Dean was about to tell him what exactly he would like, when he felt Sam's hand on his arm, gently rubbing it.

"Dean, please"

The look on his brother's face was so sad Dean shut his mouth and breathed deeply.

"Okay. I'm calm. But I want to talk to my brother. Alone." He shot another murderous look at the Doctor with the last word.

"That's alright" The doctor looked at Sam who nodded. "I'll be nearby in case you need me"

'Yeah, sure, because I'll try and harm Sam' Dean thought at this words. He waited until the Doctor had left the room and closed the door before looking at Sam again, this time with a pleading look.

"Please, Sammy, what the hell is going on?"

Sam looked at him, still rubbing his arm gently. "What's the last thing you can remember?" from Sam's tone, it looked like it wasn't the first time they had had this conversation.

"I… I'm not sure. Did I get injured during a hunt? Are you alright?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah Dean, I'm alright. And you haven't been injured during a hunt. You've never hunted anything in your life"

Dean frowned. "Well, certainly I haven't hunted deers but you know what we do. Hunting things, the family business…"

Sam denied with his head. "Dean please, there's no family business. You're an electronic Engineer, I'm finishing my last year at law school and in a couple of weeks I'll start working in Johnson&Fredman Associates, and dad's got his car shop"

A cold fear spread around Dean at hearing that. What the hell was Sammy on about?

"Sam, I know we aren't supposed to discuss our hunts in front of people, but come on, we're alone. Tell me what's going on. Why am I in the hospital?"

Sam shock his head again. "You're not in the hospital, Dean. You're in…" he gulped, unsure about how to phrase it.

"In a what? Out with it, Sam" Dean found himself loosing his patience.

"In a psychiatric institution. You have been here for six months already"

Dean felt how all the color drained from his face, and let his head again sag towards the pillow.

"What?" he whispered

_SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNNSNSNSNSNSNS_

Sam kicked open the door and entered the room, shotgun ready. He looked around, but it quickly became obvious there wasn't anybody or anything in there. He lowered his weapon and looked around. The room, only twelve feet per twelve feet was dark. Dark walls, dark ceiling, dark floor. Only a mattress on the floor indicated that it had held someone captive. Kneeling down next to the mattress, Sam picked up the only other object of the room. A pendant attached to a long black cord. Dean's amulet. He slowly got up clutching it tightly. He wanted to scream and shout. To kick something. To.. to have his brother back. It had already been two weeks and this was the first sign of him.

Dejected, Sam left the room and moved outside the house. Walking towards the Impala, he picked up his phone and dialed a number he had come to memorize. He wait only two signals before someone picked the phone up on the other side of the line, and he could hear Ellen's rough voice.

"Ellen, Dean was here, but they moved him. Somehow whoever took him knew I was coming. Tell Ash to continue the search. I'll be at the Roadhouse in about ten hours."

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

Twelve hours later had Sam sitting on one of Ellen's tools, with an untouched and already hot beer in front of him and Ash typing furiously on his computer wannabe next to him.

"I can't understand how they knew I was coming. I didn't speak to anybody in the whole time"

Ash looked up from the computer screen for a second before starting to type furiously again.

"Dude, that's why we call them Demons. You don't need not to talk to anybody in fear of being eavesdropped, they had other methods. How did you go there?

Sam looked at Ash in surprise. "What do you mean how did I go there? With the Impa… oh, shit"

"My point exactly" Ash nodded. "Don't get me wrong, that car's cool, God forbid your brother heard me saying anything bad about her, but truth is, it's a giveaway of your whereabouts"

Sam said nothing. He had missed a golden chance to free his brother. He stared at the beer bottle intently. Two weeks and he had screwed up badly. Not just because of the Impala. Dean had thought that case was odd, like if something didn't quite fit in it, but Sam had wanted to go check it, and Dean had obliged…

_**Two and a half weeks ago**_

_Dean opened up the motel room door and entered, a couple of Styrofoam cups perched in one hand, a greasy bag perched in the other._

"_Morning Sunshine… oh, you already awake" _

_Sam looked up from their new laptop._

"_Not that estrange if you consider you left the room banging the door loudly"_

_Dean didn't even had the grace to look ashamed under Sam's stare. He just smirked while he let one of the cups next to his brother._

"_Yeah, sorry bout that"_

"_No, you're not"_

"_Yeah, you're right, I'm not" Dean sat down on his bed, and opened the bag, taking a bagel out of it before tossing the bag at Sam. "So, anything interesting?"_

"_I don't know, maybe" Sam took the bag, look at its contents and dropped it on the table next to the laptop. Instead, he took a long sip from the cup. "There have been a couple murders in Port Royal, Kentucky."_

_Dean looked at him nonplussed at this Intel. "Yeah, so?"_

"_So, according to the Police records, the victims were found with big bit marks on their bodies, and, here comes the funny part, not a drop of blood on them"_

_Dean raised his eyebrows at that. "Vampires?"_

_Sam shrugged. "Could be. Except the bit marks, look at this pics here, it doesn't look like vampire teeth, is like more an animal did that"_

_Dean got up and went to stand behind Sam. Looking over his brother's shoulder he saw the marks. "Vampires can be messy, but that's just gross, dude"_

_Sam nodded. "Maybe a chupacabra?"_

"_I don't know, Sam, I've never heard of chupacabra sightings in Kentucky or so far up. New Mexico? I'd go for the theory, but Kentucky is just very off their usual locations. Not to mention the sucking people part…"_

"_Well, something did suck those people, either chupacabra or vampire or whatever, and we should go check it out"_

_Dean stared at Sam for a long time before nodding slowly. "Okay, we'll go"_

_The unconvinced tone made Sam frown. "Dean, what's the problem?"_

"_I don't know, probably nothing but I have a bad feeling about all this"_

"_What? Like a premonition?"_

_Dean laughed at that "Nothing like that, Sammy, you still keep the freak title of the family…"_

_**Now**_

"Sam, you need to sleep"

Ellen's voice returned him to the here and now.

"I'm fine, Ellen"

Ellen snorted. "You're far from fine. You've been working almost non-stop since Dean disappeared, you hardly eat, you're going to crash and be of no use to your brother"

Sam shock his head "You don't understand, Ellen. I've got to find him. I.. he's all I've got left. I…" he breathed deeply, willing the tears that were already pooling in his eyes not to fall.

"Sam," this time Ellen's voice was gentler "you'll find him, but at this moment, you can only wait until Ash's programs gives us a new clue. Why don't you let me cook something to eat and then go rest on the backroom? I swear I'll wake you up as soon as Ash comes down with something"

Sam looked from Ellen to Ash, who nodded his agreement before sighing in defeat. Ellen nodded and disappeared behind the kitchen door, and Sam allowed himself to rest his head on his forearms and close his eyes.

SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNNSNSNSNS

Dean continued looking at Sam dumbfounded. He has been in a psychiatric clinic for six months? That was impossible, he had never… and what had Sam about him being an electronic Engineer? Him? The sole idea of Dean going to the university was more than enough to demonstrate this had to be the worst nightmare his mind could come with. He had barely graduated at high school. College was so out of his league…

"Dean, we've already done this quite a lot of times" Sam added after a few seconds.

"This? What this?"

"Me explaining you why we've never hunt paranormal things, or ghosts, or whatever you may think we've chased after"

"Sam, I don't know what they've done to you, but you gotta remember. This gotta be a trick… what's the last thing we were hunting?" Dean strained to think "Yeah, that Chupacabra in Port Royal. May be it wasn't a chupacabra after all, you know I had my doubts. May be it was a…"

"Dean! Stop it" Sam got up from the bed and started pacing the room, both hands rubbing his face for a few seconds before coming to stop once again on Dean's feet. "Okay, we'll do this again. We grew up in Lawrence, Kansas. When you finished high school, you got into Stanford, to study electronic engineering" Sam smiled a little "You were really good with electronic components. I remember when you were like twelve and you'd be able to dismantle a walkman and put it together again in less than an hour. Dad said it was a gift"

Dean looked at Sam, shocked.

"Wait a minute. Even in the less than improbable case I really managed to get into college, not to mention Stanford, you're telling me Dad let me go there?" If he wasn't sure this had to be some freaky, freaky dream or hallucination, that was the final prove.

"What? Of course he let you go. Full scholarship, Dad was so very proud of you" Sam beamed. "The man had been saving for us to go to College, and having the scholarship meant you didn't have to work, you could live with the money dad gave you. You rented a nice apartment near the campus in Palo Alto where I came to crash four years later, when you were almost finishing your degree"

"Dad let you too go to college?" Dean couldn't be more confused. He closed his eyes for a minute, and opened them up again shocked, when he could actually visualize the apartment. But he knew it wasn't his, it was Sam's apartment, the one he had gone when dad had gone missing more than a year ago.

Sam laughed at Dean's question "Of course he let me go. Why shouldn't he? I know he wanted me to study mechanical engineering but he accepted what I wanted to be was a lawyer. No bad words were exchanged."

No bad words exchanged between Sam and their dad? That had to be a downright miracle. Dean denied a little with his head. "Okay, continue"

Nothing wrong with hearing the rest of that fairy tale, right?

"When you finished your degree, you started working in an engineering buffet. You met Cassie short after that, and it was like you two were made to be together. Not that you didn't ever argue, boy, you two could argue. But anyone could tell how much you loved each other by looking at the way you look at each other. When you were twenty-five, you created your own consulting company, and soon afterwards you and Cassie bought a nice home in Palo Alto and got married"

Dean felt his eyebrow raise to the ceiling with that new bit of information "Ma… married? I married Cassie?"

"Yeah, it was a nice ceremony. And I can't believe you actually forgot your bachelor party, man!"

Dean had to smile at Sam's expression when he said that. "Why? If you were the one organizing it, I assume we spent the night playing trivial pursuit…"

Sam playfully slapped him on the leg "Jerk."

"Bitch." came the automatic reply. Dean sighed. This was familiar, and familiar was good. But he had to learnt what the hell had happened. "Okay, so what…"

The rest of the sentence got caught in his throat as he watched the couple who just entered the room, worried expressions in both their faces.

"Dad? Mom?"

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

_**TWO WEEKS AND TWO DAYS AGO**_

_Dean removed the thin sheet which covered the body and grimaced at the view._

"_Whoa. Poor bastard"_

_Sam nodded, while looking at the body. They hadn't had no problem getting into the forensic room, false IDs showing them as last year med students, but in Sam's opinion, the faster they did what they had come to do and leave, the better._

_He saw the markings of the attack on the body, but there was something wrong with them. They didn't actually look like bits. It look something else entirely. _

"_Dean, I don't think we're dealing with a Chupacabra here. This marks, they really look like they've been made by…"_

"_Daevas" Dean finished the sentence for him, trying to suppress a shudder. Being sliced by those shadow beings hadn't been fun the first time._

"_Yeah" Sam looked at Dean "do you think this has to with the Demon?"_

_Dean shrugged. "No, I don't think so. I hope not. From what Caleb told me…" Dean made a pause at the mention of the dead hunter before continuing. "From what he told me, anybody with the right book and right ingredients could summon up a Daeva. Old magic, but not only in Demon's knowledge"_

"_Great, so there may be somebody who's summoned them to kill. Risky"_

_Dean nodded. "Not to mention incredibly stupid. Seriously. When will people learn?"_

_Dean covered once again the body with the sheet after a last look-over, and him and Sam walked out of the forensic lab._

"_So what do we do know?" Sam asked, once they were in the street, walking towards the parked Impala._

"_If someone on this town has made a summoning charm, he or she must have bought the necessary products somewhere. And I doubt the local Wal-mart has them all"_

"_So we look for a what? A kind of we-sell-magical-stuff store?"_

_Dean shrugged "Have a better idea? And we search how the hell the Daevas are summoned"_

_Sam nodded. "We call Bobby"_

"_Yeah. Once he tells us the items to summon a Deava, we go find our little shop and ask if anybody has bought them recently. Meanwhile…" Dean opened up the door of the Impala and got into the car. Sam followed him and sat on the passenger's seat. "… we found a motel. This could take us a couple of days to solve out"._

**NOW**

Sam opened up his eyes, the last remains of the dream still lingering. A couple of days Dean had said. If only Sam had knew, he would have taken his brother out that damned place at once. He sat on the bed, rubbing his face with his hands. Looking at his watch he saw he had been sleeping for four hours straight. He must have been really tired to do so. He stood up and opening the room door, went to the front of the place, where he was meet with the voices of the people on the roadhouse. Ellen spotted him immediately and gestured him to go sit on a stool near the bar. He did so.

"Have you sleep?"

Sam nodded "Yeah, a little bit. Has Ash found anything?"

Ellen shook her head slowly. "I'm sorry, but he's working non-stop. He'll find him again"

Sam felt his hope fade "Yeah". I just hope it's not too late by the time he does so, he thought bitterly.

SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNNSNSNSNSNSN

"Dad? Mom?"

Dean couldn't take his eyes from his parents. His father, looked more or less the same as he had looked before he died. His looks were quite less scruffy than he remembered, but he was the John Winchester Dean remembered so well. His mother, on the other hand looked older. Older than he remembered. Her hair was still auburn gold, but now she had it shorter, just touching her shoulders, and her face, the flawless face he still remembered from his dreams started showing some wrinckles. But one look at her and he couldn't deny it. She was his mom, and she was very much alive. Both her and his father were.

"Dean, honey" there was sadness on his mother's voice, but nonetheless she hurried to him and in less than a blink of an eye she had Dean enveloped in a warm hug. Dean stiffened for a second before her scent enveloped him also, and he hugged her fiercely, not caring about the tears falling now free down his cheeks.

"Mom… I've missed you"

"Shhh, everything will be alright, I promise" Mary gently disentangled gently from his embrace, and cupped his face between her hands. "We've been so worried. Sam called us and we came as soon as possible."

Dean seemed unable to move his eyes away from her mother's figure. That was, until his father approaches, sitting down on the other side of the bed carefully, and laying a hand on Dean's shoulder.

"How are you feeling, son?"

"Confused, I guess" Dean admitted. How was he supposed to feel when both his parents, who were dead, were standing next to him?

"That's to be expected" Dean looked up at the door at hearing this new voice. The same doctor whom Sam was talking to when he first woke up had entered the room again.

"Doctor Shane." John stood up and shook hands with the doctor.

"Mr. Winchester, Mrs. Winchester." The doctor acknowledged them both. "I've just received the test results we performed yesterday night"

What? They had done tests to him while he had been sedated? Dean looked at the doctor with a murderous glare.

"What's wrong?" Mary asked, taking Dean's hand between hers.

"The tests and scans showed no indication of regression of any kind on your son" the doctor started.

"Then why did he had an attack yesterday?" That's the John Winchester Dean remembered. Clean and cut to the case. He wanted answers and he wanted them yesterday.

"We believe your son organism has become immune to the clozapine we were administering him as a psychosis symptoms reliever. It doesn't happen very often, but it's not unheard of. We'll start treating him immediately with ziprasidone. This substance is quite more strong than clozapine, and the first days Dean will experience some nausea and dizziness, but I believe once his body gets used to it, the improvement will be great."

Dean's head was spinning. He had been medicating? Now he had to medicate? He knew the hunts were real, how could have he made all that up? But he also knew his parents were dead, and yet, there they were, standing next to him, his mother's hands still around his. He didn't understand anything. He couldn't understand anything and he was now too tired to think. He was just content to have all his family together. Later he would try and think of what was happening…

"So when does Dean start taking this new medication?"

His father's voice make him return to reality.

"Well, I'd like Dean to eat something before giving it to him" The doctor smiled at him.

"I'm… I'm tired. I'd like to rest"

"Sure Dean, but first, let's try and get some toast and juice into you, and then you can rest all you want, okay?"

Dean started to nod when something caught up his eye. He had seen it too many times to misunderstand it. The doctor's eyes had gone completely black in a blink. But when he looked at him again, his eyes were once again the usual brown.

"Sam! Dad! He's possessed!" he tried to get up from the bed, only to found two strong arms pinning him down again.

"Sam! Help me, he'll hurt himself!"

Dean looked at his father in disbelief. How could the man doubt him. He started fighting to break loose. "Dad! He's possessed! He wants to hurt us! Let me go! SAM!"

Between his cries, he could distinguish his mother sobbing and Sam approaching and pinning his legs to the bed, while the doctor pressed the emergency button and asked for something. He just couldn't understand why his father and his brother wouldn't help him. What if they were possessed to?

"LET ME GO! He'll hurt us! You've got to LET ME GO!"

Suddenly he felt something a sting in his arm and a few moments later a big lassitude washed over him. He no longer found the strength to try and kick his father or Sam out of him, and he was having difficulties trying to remember why it was so important that they helped him instead of restrain him. His eyes started closing and finally he succumbed to sleep…

SNSNSNSNSNSN

The dark, tall figure stepped away from the sleeping man, a frown on his face. He hadn't anticipated so much resistance from a mere human. This wasn't how this was supposed to be. The human should, by now, embraced his new life and let his body start to fail, but instead, he still was fighting the illusion of a perfect world for the reality. Suddenly, another figure appeared next to him, also dark, only two yellow eyes distinguishable and looking at the sleeping man.

"I thought he'd be broken by now"

The first figure shivered. The words hadn't been spoken in anger, but he know better than to presume the Demon wouldn't strike when he was less expecting it.

"My lord, his mind is strong, but he will fall soon enough. I'll make sure of it"

The yellow eyes narrowed in some kind of grotesque smile.

"See that you do that. See that you do".

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

Dean opened his eyes again with an incredible sense of Déjà Vu. Looking at the white ceiling above his head and listening to the soft beeps coming from something placed at his right, he knew he was still in the hospital room, or hallucination or whatever. He tried to lift an arm to rub his eyes, but found it impossible to do. Looking down he saw his wrists encased in leather cuffs once again. He pushed against them just out of principle before two soft hands enclosed against his right one.

"Dean, you'll just end up harming yourself"

Dean looked up from the two hands enclosing his to the face of the person standing next to him. She was exactly the same as he remembered her. Long wavy blond hair, kind expression, blue eyes… he blinked a couple of times. It didn't help that his last memory he had of her was with her pinned on a ceiling, bleeding and surrounded by flames.

"Jess?"

Jess smiled softly and leaned to kiss his forehead before sitting next to him on the bed, never letting his hand go.

"Hey" she replied "How are you feeling?"

How was he feeling? Confused. Like he was really losing his mind. And like he was fighting some kind of battle and if losing meant to stay with his parents alive and well and with Sam being happy, he didn't mind losing at all. Instead of saying all that he just shrugged.

"Tired, I guess"

Jess nodded a little bit. "You gotta stop scaring us like this"

"Funny, Sam said the same thing before…" he smirked a little, and Jess let out a brief laugh at that.

"Yeah, he would, wouldn't he?" she sobered a little. "I had to threaten him with sending my brothers to have him physically removed from here if he didn't go home to sleep for a few hours"

Dean nodded a little bit "Thank you. Sam can be a little stubborn sometimes"

Jess laughed again at that. "Oh, I think that's something running on the family."

Truth to be told, Dean couldn't really disagree with that. "And speaking about family. My parents?" he prayed he hadn't imagined that.

"They're downstairs in the cafeteria grabbing something to eat. Don't worry, they should come back soon enough. And Sam too."

He nodded slowly before looking at her again. "I saw you die, Jess"

She looked at him for a few seconds before nodding in return "I know"

Dean raised his eyebrows shocked. "You do?"

Jess smiled a little. "Everything started you know… " she paused and Dean waited for her to continue. "Everything started when you said you had seen me dying, pinned to the ceiling, bleeding from the stomach while everything burnt"

"But.. that's what happened. Dad went missing, I went looking for Sam in Palo Alto to help me find him, and when he returned, he saw you, and I had to take him outside the apartment. You died in there!" He was becoming rapidly agitated and Jess started rubbing her thumb across Dean's hand.

"Dean, please, calm down"

Dean took a few deep breaths and nodded slightly.

"I didn't die Dean, and our apartment didn't get caught in fire. But I'm glad to know that if anything happened to me, you'd be there making sure Sam didn't do anything stupid. That means a lot to me, Dean." She smiled and Dean found himself smiling back slightly.

"so, you and Sam are happy?"

If Jess was smiling before, now her smile could have lit up a whole football stadium.

"We're very happy. And we're…" she showed him the engagement ring he was wearing. "… working on keeping it this way for a long time"

Dean looked at the ring and closed his eyes, assaulted by a sudden memory.

_His father, with sickening yellow eyes and a mocking smile on his face._

_John: You know, I never told you this, but Sam was gonna ask her to marry him. Been shoppin' for rings and everything._

"Dean, you okay?"

Jess's voice made him come back to the here and now and he looked at her, plastering a smile on his face.

"Wow, that's a beautiful ring. Way to go, Sammy"

"yeah, way to go, me" Dean and Jess both looked at the door to see Sammy smiling there. He came into the room and after kissing Jess he affectionately tightened his hand across Dean's forearm. "how are you feeling, Dean?"

"Better. Much better actually"

"Good, that's good." Sam answered sitting down on the other side of the bed. Jess looked at him "Have you been able to sleep?"

Sam nodded. "Like a baby. And before you ask, yeah, I grabbed something to eat before coming here"

Dean looked at the both of them. They seemed to work like a well oiled machine, like he remembered his parents when he was a child, and couldn't help but smile a little. Sam was obviously happy to have Jess with him, and seeing Sam happy was one of the most important things for Dean. Jess broke his thoughts.

"Well, then I think I'll be the one going to grab something to eat with your parents." she leaned down and kissed again Dean on the forehead before picking her bag up and leaving the room. Dean looked at Sam and smirked.

"So out of your league"

Sam let out a laugh "so you keep saying." Then, sobering himself he continued "Dean, seriously, how do you feel?"

"Better, really" Dean tried and shrugged as much as he could given his situation with his wrists tied up to the bed. "I'm still… confused, I won't deny that, but… I'm better"

Sam smiled. "You'll get well. You'll see"

Dean nodded a little. "Sam, what I don't understand is how could I move from being this successful man you said I am or was or whatever to being diagnosed as whacko."

Sam sighed. He had been dreading that moment but knew it was inevitable. "It happened six months ago"

Dean nodded impatiently "Yeah, you told me before I had been here for six months already. But what happened"

"One day after work, you and I met to have some drinks. We did that a lot of time, Dean. It was the day I told you I had proposed to Jess and she had said yes, and we went to celebrate. Since you had the Impala on the mechanics, we went with my car, and when we decided to call it a night, I offered you a ride to your place"

Dean was listening very intently without knowing where any of what Sam was saying was headed. "Okay, so what happened?"

"A couple of streets before your place we started hearing the sirens and soon after that we saw the flames lighting"

Dean paled. Images of a house burning came to his mind. Their home in Lawrence, Sam's apartment. "What happened?"

Sam gulped before continuing with the explanation. "The police and the fire department report coincided. A bad wiring caused the fire and it spread so fast…" Sam stopped again and looked at Dean. "I'm so sorry Dean. They said Cassie wouldn't even had woken up. the smoke and gases would have rendered her unconscious… she didn't suffer"

Dean looked at his hands. Cassie wasn't dead. Sure, it had been a while since he had spoken to her, but she was alive and well. He shook his head.

"Cassie is fine. She… she's fine. I'll call her and you'll see."

Sam sadly shook his head. "Dean, after the accident you went into shock. I took you back to Jess's and my apartment but you wouldn't eat, you wouldn't sleep and you wouldn't talk. Not even to dad. We didn't know how to help you. And then one day, you started saying how all of this wasn't real, how a Demon had killed mom all those years ago. You became aggressive when we tried to convince you otherwise. In the end we had to search professional help for you"

"And here I am. Lucky me"

"Dean…"

Dean shook his head. "I don't… I don't blame you Sam. I guess I would have done the same had I been you"

No, I wouldn't, thought Dean bitterly. But what good would it do to tell that to Sam? He knew something was very wrong. His father had taught him to trust his instincts, but he also knew he would not solve anything by being cuffed to a damned bed. He had to be smarter and play their game until he knew what was going on. And if in the meantime he could enjoy of his parents and Sam together… yeah, he had always criticized the normality Sam always craved on, but having tasted it first hand, he couldn't deny it look… appealing.

"You alright?"

He looked at Sam. Time to start playing. "Yeah. Just… everything's still a little fuzzy and…" he sighed "I miss her"

Sam patted his knee in sympathy. "I know man."

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"_I still think we should wait until Bobby gives us some information, Dean"_

_He and Dean had been circling the area where the two attacks had taken place for some time._

"_Come on Sam, the more information we have to give Bobby, the more he can work with and the sooner he'll have the solution."_

"_No, you're looking for the damned altar. You know once we find it the only thing we'll accomplish is to break the binding link between the Daevas and the person who summoned them, right?"_

_Dean turn to Sam and started walking backwards. _

"_Yeah, and that would be a bad thing why?"_

_Sam stuttered. "Because the first thing those Daevas are going to do is kill the person who summoned then?"_

"_Yeah, and I repeat my question, that would be a bad thing why?"_

"_Dean!"_

_Dean huffed. "Sam! Whoever's done that, did not do it just for the fun of it. The intention was to kill. So what if he or she gets a bit of their own medicine? Had it coming"_

_Sam stopped walking and looked at Dean disbelievingly "I swear to God I don't get you sometimes, Dean! We can't just wait and see how those things kill… DEAN!"_

_Something had grabbed Dean and threw him across until Dean's body impacted against a solid tree and slid to the floor. He didn't get up, and when Sam tried to go to him, the same force had him flying backwards until his body connected again with solid ground and Sam knew no more. When he awoke some time later, there was no sign of Dean. Whoever had done that to them was long gone with his brother. _

Sam opened up his eyes. He seemed unable to sleep without the same dream, of what happened came taunting him once and again.

"Sam, are you awake?" the voice at the other side of the door was unmistakably Ellen's. He got up from the bed and stretching his arms, opened the door.

"I'm awake, what's going on?"

Ellen smiled. "Ash has a trail."

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I'm so very sorry for the big delay in updating the story, but real life and work have really really been a b for this couple of weeks. Anyway, thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoy it:)**

A week had passed since the doctor had changed his medication, and Dean was proud of himself and the show he faked of taking the pills. However, since that first day when he had seen the Doctor's eyes becoming utterly black, nothing else that could have been considered as odd or supernatural had happened. Still, he wasn't letting his guard down, but he had to admit that as lives went, the one he was living wasn't so bad. If he could neglect the part about being held on that goddamned psychiatric ward. And it looked like even that was coming to a happy ending soon enough.

Dean was sitting on his bed, patiently waiting for his Doctor to finish reading the results of his latest tests, Sam at his side. Finally, the Doctor looked up and smiled.

"Well Dean, everything seems normal. And you say you've got no visions, hallucinations, delusions or anything, right?"

Dean nodded. "Absolutely not. Just the same old reality all this week" Lying came naturally. he had spent his whole life pretending to be other people and he liked to believe that he had upgraded his faking and lying skills to an art. He looked at Sam who seemed more than happy with his answer, and couldn't help but feel a twinge of hurt. His Sam could tell he was lying. He always seemed to know, even when he didn't say anything about it. The expression on this Sam's face told him he believed in what he was saying, and that alone was a reminder for Dean that he had to discover what the heck was going on and how to solve it.

"So Doc, when can I blow this popsicle stand? No disrespect, but I can't see the moment to step out of here"

The Doctor sighed not convinced at all, but luckily Sam decided to take part. "Doctor, you said Dean could leave if all the test results came back normal and he showed no signs of distress during the week. He'll be staying with my fiancée and with me, he won't be alone."

That had been really the only condition Sam hadn't bulged on about. And at first Dean hadn't liked the idea, after all, moving in with Sam would mean Sam breathing down his neck with worry at all hours, but it was until he realised Sam would have to go to college, to his job, same as Jess. That would leave him plenty of time to try an understand what was going on.

"I guess he can continue his recovery out of here" The Doctor's voice made him came back to reality, well, reality or whatever that was. "I'll prepare all the papers and you can leave" The Doctor looked at Sam. "I expect you to report any symptom he may develop"

Sam nodded fervently. "Of course"

"Well then" the doctor turned his stare at Dean now "I hope we don't have to see each other again under this circumstances, Dean"

Dean smirked "Believe me, so do I"

With a last handshake, the doctor left the room, and when Sam turned around to look at Dean again, it was to find his brother had already slipped on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and was in the process of tying up his sneakers. Sam snorted. "Sure you can be fast when you set your mind to it"

Dean looked up and smirked before finish the task and get up "Not always, Sammy, not always."

Sam shook his head in amusement. "We ready to go?"

Dean nodded and threw the duffle with the few belongings he had over his shoulder "Hell yeah, let's go".

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The Impala purred as it came to a halt outside the Roadhouse. Climbing out the car, Sam took only a few seconds to stretch his legs and his arms. He had been driving non-stop for nine hours, after Ash's new trail had turned into a new fiasco. Sam sighed. That wasn't entirely fair. It was true that when Sam had arrived to old warehouse, it had been empty, but he had found more than enough evidenced to show dark magic had been practised in that place. He had collected as much evidence as possible, and when he had found another coat with roped dangling from it, he knew Dean had been there. Somehow, whatever had taken his brother was able to anticipate his movements.

Ellen looked up from behind the counter and offered him a sympathetic smile. Sam had called the Roadhouse after discovering the place deserted, so Ash could continue working while he returned there.

"I'm sorry Sam"

Sam nodded tersely. "So am I". He sit down on one of the tools and opened his bag, taking out the plastic bags with the amulets and stuff he had collected in the warehouse. Opening his laptop, he proceeded to download the pictures he had taken from the altar where he had collected the items from. Once downloaded, he turned the computer so Ellen could look at the pictures.

"Sounds familiar?"

Ellen looked at them before shaking his head. "I've never seen anything like this before."

"Neither have I" Sam admitted.

"What about your father's journal?"

Sam shook his head "Nothing. Do you think Ash may know?" he gestured towards Ash's door with the 'Doctor Badass in" sign.

"No, I don't think so. Ash can be a genius to track the supernatural but his knowledge about spells, black magic and charms equals the one of a group of a school girls playing with a Ouija. But you should mail them to Bobby. If there's someone who knows this stuff, it's him"

Sam nodded and quickly emailed the pictures to Bobby, knowing the older hunter would get in contact as soon as possible.

"May be I should go see Bobby, this way we'll…"

"This way you'll end up crashing that car of yours again, Sam" Ellen interrupted him. "Here's what we're gonna do. You're gonna take a shower and then eat a decent meal. And then, if Bobby hasn't said anything, we'll call him."

Ellen's tone admitted no discussion, and when Sam opened his mouth to reply, the brow that was arched in his direction was more than enough to make him close it again. Ellen looked at his defeated expression and sighed.

"Sam, that whoever or whatever took him takes so many efforts so you don't find him means they need him. And while they need him they won't kill him"

Sam looked at Ellen. "It's what happened when they don't need him anymore what worries me. What if I'm too late by then?"

Ellen looked at him but say nothing. Sam got up and went to the back of the Roadhouse shoulders slumped. He really needed Dean and he wanted him back right now…

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Dean got out of Sam's car and took a glance again at it.

"Really, a SUV"

Sam sighed. "Yeah Dean, for the last time: really, a SUV. It's comfortable."

"It's a… a… "

_"It's humiliating. I feel like a friggin' soccer mom!"_

"Dean? Lost at words?"

Dean shook his head and looked at Sam. "This is a soccer mom car, Sam. Sometimes I wonder if we're really related"

Sam smacked him up the head. "smart mouth"

"Yeah, but at least I have taste with cars…"

They walked to the apartment door and once Sam opened up the door, they went in. The apartment was bathed in daylight, soft colours all around, but Dean remembered it differently.

_Dean fought against Sam in the darkness of the house, pretty surprised and slightly hurt that his little brother hadn't recognised the fighting pattern. He had to admit Sam could still stand a fight, but he had always been better, and it was time to show that. Getting the upper hand, he knocked Sam down, staying on top of him and branding his trademark smile._

_"Easy, tiger"_

_"Dean?"_

_Dean had to laugh at his brother's shocked face. It was well worth it._

_"You scared the crap out of me"_

_"That's because you're out of practice"_

_Not sooner the words had left his mouth, he found himself lying flat on his back with Sam on top of him._

_"Or not. Get off me"_

Dean shocked his head a little and saw Sam looking at him with a funny face. "Yeah man, I know, everything is quite changed since you lived here, but Jess says this looks more cosy and …"

"And it is. Not to mention nice, of course" Jess stepped out of the kitchen to kiss Sam and hug Dean. "How are you feeling?"

Dean plastered a smile on his face. "Fine, I feel fine. A little tired maybe."

Sam frowned but Jess smiled. "We've prepared the guest room for you, you should go rest a little before dinner. What do you say?"

"I say it sounds pretty good" he needed some time to think about his next steps. What to do and where to go. Sam frowned again but Dean just kept smiling and started walking towards the guest room. When he was on the corridor he could hear Sam speaking to Jess.

"He must be really tired to accept taking a nap like a good little boy." Sam laughed a little, but the voice was concerned.

"I heard that, bitch!" Dean answered, more on principles than anything else, without stopping walking.

"Yeah, whatever jerk" came the reply. He laughed and not for the first time found himself wanting that to be reality. And when he turned around and saw Jess playfully hitting Sam's arm because of something he had said before laughing and trying to get back to the kitchen, all the while Sam grabbed her by the waist and dropped a kiss onto her hair before finally letting her go, he had doubts about what was real and what was not for the first time…

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The creature retired its hand from Dean's forehead and smiled. Finally it had managed to plant the doubt inside that human's mind. It knew it still was too soon to offer him the chance of the life he wanted, but given more time, he would accept it, and once he did, he'd be trapped inside that false reality forever.

Approaching the altar, it added some black herbs to the cup already full of a dark liquid. Luckily the spell on the human hadn't broken when it had to run away before that brother of his found them. It had been a close call, but it was doubtful that Samuel would find them again. This time they were very well hidden.

The change in the air let it know it was not alone with the human anymore. Turning around, it saw the yellow eye Demon next to the human's bed, looking down at him. It approached nervously, sensing the Demon's power.

"My Lord, I'm pleased to tell you finally the human's mind is starting to break"

The Demon looked from the human to it. "How much more time do you need?"

The creature hesitated. "it's really too soon to tell. If we hurry things too much, all this work will be for nothing"

"I don't have much time! I need him out of the game permanently!" the Demon roared and even the walls surrounding them trembled. The Creature took a couple of steps backwards.

"My.. my Lord, if this human is such an annoyance to you, why don't you just kill him?"

The Demon glared at him. "I made a deal with his father. I can't touch him, I can't kill him or have him killed. It has to be his decision to abandon his brother and left this fight against us"

The creature smiled. "Don't worry, Master, this human very soon won't want to leave his new little nice reality. Not even for his brother"

The Demon frowned "They are very close"

"It doesn't matter. This spell has separated fathers and sons, husbands and wives, siblings… all of them with strong bonds. This human will succumb as all the others have done in the past"

"You'd better be right, for your own good" The Demon spared Dean a last look before disappearing in a mist of black smoke.

SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSN

The cell phone hadn't even ringed twice before Sam was answering the call.

"Bobby? Thank God! Have you discovered…"

"Sam, if we want to save Dean, we've gotta hurry" Sam could feel the anxiousness in Bobby's voice even by the phone line.

"What? Do you know what's going on? Tell me!"

"Sam, are you at the Roadhouse?"

"Yeah, I am but…"

"You'd better come to my place as soon as possible. And bring Ash with you. I'll start working on how to break the spell but we've got to act quickly"

"Spell? Is it a spell? Wha…"

"Sam, I'll explain everything when you arrive"

Sam nodded. "We'll be there in three hours."

He picked down the phone and hurriedly knocked on Ash's door.

"Ash! Move your ass, we've got to go NOW!"

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

Dean waved at Jess as she got into her car and drove away. He had been afraid Sam or her would decide to stay at home with him thus retarding even more his investigation. But it looked like both of them were satisfied with Dean's behaviour during the weekend, so they both left to work, not before repeating like a thousand times their work phone numbers were written in the small pad next to the phone, and should Dean need anything, he could call them and they'd de home as soon as possible.

Dean sighed. A part of him was grateful he was getting so much attention. It wasn't like he had not received any when he was a child, but his father was most of the time obsessed about the hunt and finding the Demon who had killed his mom and most of the times where Dean had seen children who had fallen and scratched his knees, or his elbows and their parents showed concern, his father would tell him to suck it up, he was too much of a big boy to spill tears over some little scratch who wouldn't even scar. His dad had a way of telling him this which would make Dean feel like he was some kind of hero for not crying, but looking backwards, a hug would have been appreciated. And then it hit him.

_''Okay son, now remember, you've got to focus on the road, and in keeping the handle upright and straight. Everything will be fine if you do that''_

_Dean nodded, concentration written all over his face. "Daddy, are you sure I won't fall? I want my back wheels back!"_

_John kneeled in front of his son, smiling a little. "Dean, I've seen you ride this bike, and I assure you don't need those wheels. You want to ride like a big boy, right?" Dean nodded fervently, his hair gently moving up and down with his head movement. "Then you'll have to trust me. You can do this son, I know you can."_

_Dean gulped but nodded again. "Okay"_

_John smiled and ruffled his hair. "Come on now then. I'm going to be subjecting the bike until you feel safe enough for me to let go, right?"_

_"Right."_

_John nodded one last time before subjecting firmly the rear end of Dean's bike. Dean started pedalling slowly at first, and progressively gaining trust as he saw the bike kept its vertical position. He started pedalling faster and faster, smiling as he realised he was biking like a big boy. He continued riding the bike down the street until a stone got in his way and suddenly the bike did a funny flip and he found himself on the ground, with a bloody knee. Trying to stop the tears that were threatening to fall, he looked back, just to see his dad a few meters behing, hurrying up to were he was on the ground._

_"Dean, are you alright?"_

_Dean shook his head and started sobbing. "You let go. You said you wouldn't until I was sure but you let go..."_

_John kneeled down in front of his son and quickly gathered him into his arms. "I'm sorry champ, you were doing so fine I thought I could let go." He looked down at Dean's bloody knee, noticing it was just a scratch. "Does it hurt?" Dean nodded. "Well, then we'll have to cure it, right?" Dean nodded again, still half sobbing in his father's arms. John carried him and the bike back to their home, leaving the bike on the garden before entering the house and going to the kitchen, were Mary was feeding little Sammy who seemed to be having the time of his life refusing to eat his pap. When Mary saw John depositing Dean on the kitchen table, she left the dish with the remains of Sammy's meal in the sink and approached them._

_"What happened?"_

_"I fell and it hurts"_

_Mary looked at John as waiting for an explanation. "He was riding like a champion, and had a little accident." When Mary saw the blood staining his son's trousers she moved to the bathroom cabinet but John stopped her. "Don't worry, I have it." In less than a minute John had came back with some bandage**s** and peroxide. "This may sting a little, Dean-o" Dean nodded. He knew the liquid stung a lot, but he would be brave. He shut his eyes when his father applied it with a gauge, but didn't complaint. Soon enough, his father was bending down and dropping a kiss on the scratch. "Ready. Look, you won't even need a band-aid." Dean looked down and saw the ugly scratch which luckily no longer bled. "Yeeeew." John laughed at that while he threw the used gauges to the garbage. "So Dean, do you forgive me for letting you go?"_

_Dean looked at him and finally nodded. "I was really doing great?"_

_"You were doing more than great, son." As if agreeing, Sammy clapped his hands and laughed while Mary smiled and dropped a kiss on his hair..._

Dean opened his eyes. How could he had forgotten that? The memory was now liquid clearly in his mind. And it was impossible his mother had dies when Sammy was six months old, because when that incident with the bike happened, Sammy was already more than a year old... and his father hadn't once told him to suck it up. He had encouraged Dean to try again with the bike, but never told him off for crying. He rubbed his eyes. He remembered that, but he also remembered his father placing little Sammy in his hands...

_Take your brother outside as fast as you can, and don't look back. Now Dean! Go!_

Both memories looked equally real to him and that confused him. And confusion was a state Dean most definitely didn't like to be in. He sighed. He would discover which reality was the real one if it was the last thing he did. Determined, he went to the phone observing pleased that it had memorised some numbers. Scrolling them down, he found what he was looking for. An entry with the name 'Dean, house' just below the one named 'Dean, cellular'. he smiled and wrote down the number. Then, picking up the phone, he call the information number and waited until a feminine voice replied.

"Yeah, I'd like to know the address for this phone number, please: 658-555-98977." he picked up the pen while he waited for the voice to answer. Through the phone line he could hear typing, so he assumed the woman was searching it. Not before long she answered.

"I'm sorry sir, but this number seems doesn't seem to be operational anymore."

He breathed heavily. Of course it wouldn't still be operational if the house had burnt down. he thought quickly "Yeah, I know, my brother and his wife had an stalker a few months ago and decided to change their phone line for their cell lines, but really, I want to surprise him, and I lost his address. Sure even if the number is not longer on use the address must still be registered somewhere, right?"

The woman seemed to think about the request, so, knowing he had to have his personal data even if the number was no longer in use, he pressed his luck. "Come on, please. Yeah, it's true that my brother Dean and his wife had a stalker a few months back and decided to drop their home phone line and only use their cell numbers, but it's been more than a year since I last saw them and I want to surprise them, and well, I lost their address..."

The use of the name 'Dean' which surely the woman was seeing written in her screen seemed to do the trick 'Okay, I guess there's no harm in telling you. You've got something to write it down?"

Dean smiled. "Yeah, yeah, I got it."

"Okay. The address is the following: 274, St. Paul Avenue, Palo Alto."

Dean quickly wrote it down. "Thank you so much, really."

The woman's voice softened. "You're welcome. Have a good day."

Dean hanged up and switching on Sam's laptop, he quickly searched where that street was. Luckily enough for him, it wasn't much far from where he was, and seeing the keys to his Impala, which Sam had told him early had been parked behind the apartment all that time, he picked them up and left the house. Time to start investigating.

SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSN

Bobby heard the unmistakable purr of the Impala and opened his door to see Sam and Ash already moving towards the house. He let them in, and Ash immediately proceeded to search for a plug and connect his laptop.

"Bobby, thanks for helping us"

Bobby went to his fridge and produced three cold beers, handing Sam and Ash one each.

"You don't even have to mention it" Taking a long sip from his own beer, he let the bottle on the table and opened up a book by an already marked page. "This is what I've discovered by the photos you sent me and the objects of the altar. We're dealing with a Raiglan Demon."

Sam looked confused. "A what?"

"It's and ancient books. In fact, last time he was seen or heard of was when Rome burnt. He actually was the one who induced Nero to forget about his Empire and allow it to burnt to ashes"

Sam looked even more confused now. "But why would this... "

"Raiglan"

Sam nodded. "This Raiglan Demon want with Dean? And what exactly does it do?"

"Raiglan Demons are able to modify once mind and memories. They act while the victim is in a sleep-induced state. They play a different reality inside the victim's mind, a much better reality than the one the victim really is living. The Demon does that so in the end the victim comes to a choose. Come back to his or her reality, or deny it in order to stay in the new one. If they choose the new one, the Demon erases irreversibly the real memories and then when the victim wakes up he doesn't remember anything at all. He or she becomes just a shell."

Sam absorbed all this information. "But Dean will know he's being tricked. How many people chose their realities?"

Bobby sighed. "From what I've found out, no one."

"What? No one? This can't be possible. I mean someone..."

"Sam" Bobby interrupted his ramblings. "This Demon's magic is strong. I'm sure Dean is fighting it, but we must find him as soon as possible. If Dean's been in this Demon's grip for more than two weeks now, we have no way to know how much of Dean's believes it will have already broken."

Sam let his face fall on the table in despair. "Why would this Demon do that to Dean? I don't understand..."

"This Demon never acts by its needs. If it's doing this to Dean, is because someone, or something has summoned it to do so. And I wouldn't put it pass my mind that this something is the Demon you're hunting."

Sam's head shot up. "The Demon? Why would he do that? If he wanted Dean out of the game he could kill him, right?"

Bobby shrugged. "Well, I have a theory on that too"

"What theory?"

"Dean, and even yourself to some extent, seems to believe your dad made some kind of deal with the Demon to save Dean's life, right? That would explain Dean's more than miraculous recovery, your father's dead and the Colt disappearance."

Sam nodded. It wasn't something he was ever gonna confess to Dean, but when Dean had told him he believed his father had trades his own life to save his oldest son, Sam had to admit he had given that theory some thoughts too.

"Maybe your Dad did not only deal for Dean's life, but also made the Demon promise he wouldn't kill Dean or harm him directly."

"And that's why he has to find some other way to get Dean out of the picture." Sam nodded. That actually made sense. And it would also explain why every time he was close to finding Dean, his captors seemed to know it and moved away.

"Okay, so we know what's got Dean and why. We need to know how to stop before it's too late" 'if it isn't already' he thought "And where they are hiding."

Ash intervened for the first time at that. "I'm working on the where is Dean part. Luckily for us, Demons usually leave a weather pattern. And if this Demon believed we need days to track him down and I can do it in hours, well, it is in for a big surprise"

Sam nodded and turned to Bobby. "How do we stop it?"

Bobby looked at him uncomfortably. "I'm not sure. I haven't found any information about that. I think the best shot would be to destroy the altar so the Demon loses its grip on Dean. But I'm not sure if this is gonna work."

"There's only one way to find out, right?" Sam said with conviction. He knew Dean, and even if Bobby's book said no one had ever been able to overcome this Demon's power, Dean would not believe the first thing that Demon put on his mind, and he just had to find him before it was too late. And he was determined to do so.

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

Dean stopped the Impala in front of the house and got out, checking once again he was on the right place. And yes, he was. Looking at the house, he felt a knot on his gut. The apartment, or at least what was left of it, was beyond salvation. The façade was completely burnt, black as charcoal, and he could see by the open gaps that used to be windows, that the structure inside had collapsed. It was obvious nobody inside caught when the fire took place could have escaped. He closed his eyes for a second, more than enough for the memories to assault him.

_He and Sam were inside of Sam's car, driving through the streets at night. Both smiling, after having celebrated the news that Sam and Jessica had got engaged. _

_"I can believe my little brother has grown up enough to get married" Dean said, for what had to be the umpteenth time that night. _

_"I grow up taller than you like six years ago, Dean" Sam replied laughing and Dean shook his head in amusement._

_"Jerk" he said and Sam laughed out loud._

_"Now don't you go stealing my lines because…" whatever he had planned to add got caught in his throat when they heard the sirens and saw the lights of the fire units speeding across the streets. Dean suddenly felt nervous._

_"Sam, go faster, will you? I have a bad feeling."_

_"A bad feeling? A bad feeling about what?" Nonetheless, Sam stepped on the gas and his car navigated the streets much faster. When they were still three or four passages away from Dean's place, it became only too clear that a big fire was spread in some apartment in the area. Dean's feeling of unease increased and it reached it's higher point when a minute later, when Sam maneuvered the car to his street, he saw the apartment on fire was his. He had no recollection of getting out of Sam's car, but he must had, because next he remembered, he was running to the apartment, shouting Cassie's name. Two firemen blocked his entrance and he fought him with all his might. Then Sam had appeared at his side, also impending him to go into the apartment. He remembered the three of them ushering him away from the apartment where he crumpled to the floor, unable to tear his gaze away from the fire._

_Next he remembered, one police officer was talking to them but Dean barely paid him any attention. Cassie had been inside the apartment. Cassie was dead…_

Dean snapped out of the memory and frowned. That had been real. How could he remember so exactly the details if not? The heat of the fire, the smoke smell, the people shouts, the water from the hoses, the street lamps and the neighbors being evacuated… And then he got caught in another different memory.

_Dean stopped his Impala next to Sam's apartment. The return trip had been pretty quiet. Sam stepped out of the car and looked at his brother through the window._

_"Maybe I can meet up with you later, huh?"_

_Dean nodded a little. " Yeah, all right"_

_Sam started to walk towards the apartment, before Dean spoke again. "Sam. You know, we made a hell of a team back there."_

_Sam nodded and smiled a little. "Yeah." Turning around, he went into his apartment, and Dean started the engine and left off. Sam had once again chosen a normal life over him and their father, and even though Dean had promised himself he wouldn't let that affect him the same way it had two years ago, when his little brother had dropped the bomb about leaving to go to Stanford, Dean felt once again slapped in the face. To take his mind of, he switched on the radio and frowned at the interferences he received when he tried dialing the local radio station. _

_"Damned Palo Alto" he muttered before slipping a Metallica tape into the radio and letting the sound envelop him. He looked at his watch, only to find it frozen over 10:15._

_"What the.." and then it hit him. He wasn't sure why, but he had to go back. He needed to check on Sam. Doing a U-turn he sped towards the apartment in time to see how the upper floor burst into flames. He jumped from the car and entered the apartment, running up the stairs towards the sound of Sam's voice, screaming. He entered Sam and Jess's bedroom in time to see Jess in the ceiling, surrounded by flames. Just like his father had told them he had found their mother twenty-two years ago. He grabbed Sam and forcefully obliged him to run down the stairs…_

Dean looked again at the ruined apartment. Same apartment, two completely different memories, both equally very real in his mind. Which one was the real one? He frowned. He couldn't tell.

"Dean."

He turned around to see Sam on the other side of the street.

"What are you doing here?" Dean frowned. He had thought his plan to be quite perfect.

Sam smiled and crossed the street to come to stand next to his brother.

"Come on Dean, give me some credit."

Dean sighed. "I had to see it"

Sam nodded slowly. "I know. So I decided I'd make sure you were alright. And, before you point it, I know. No chick-flick moments with you"

"Damn right you are" Dean answered but smiled nonetheless. "Listen Sam, I.. I appreciate you being here."

"You're welcome."

The two of them stayed watching the apartment for a while, before Sam nudged him gently. "We should go back home"

Dean nodded and started walking towards the Impala. "How did you come here?"

Sam smiled. "I walked. I didn't want to risk you finding my car parked and fleeing away."

"Very smart, college boy"

Sam laughed before sitting down on the passenger seat in the Impala "Right back at cha." He waited until Dean started the engine before he spoke again. "I talked to mum last night. She and dad will come this weekend."

Dean still felt thrown off-balance by the fact both his parents were alive and well, but he nodded. Truth to be told, he couldn't wait the moment to see them again, and found himself growing even more attached to this reality. Sure, he felt pain whenever he allowed himself to think about Cassie, but Sam was happy in there, his parents were alive, and they had normal lives. They weren't freaks. And even thought he had spent twenty-two years denying it, truth was, he was no different from Sam and longed for a normal life after all.

"Dude, are you even listening?"

"Huh?" He looked at his brother.

"I was asking you if you wanted to go grab something to eat."

Dean nodded smiling. "Yeah, sound like a plan. I'm starving, actually."

SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSN

"Got it!"

Ash's voice made Sam snap his head up and quickly rose from the chair he was sitting on to watch the computer screen.

"What? Do you know where Dean is being held?"

Bobby also approached, having left the guns he was oiling aside.

"I know where he is being held, but most importantly, I know where they're gonna move him next"

Sam looked at Ash in astonishment. "How do you know that?"

Ash shrugged. "A little tracking job. When a Demon acts, there are always traces and phenomena to track them down. It's impossible for a Demon to walk in Earth without showing the slightest amount of traces."

Ash started showing them some weather reports he had collected from the internet. "You see, these reports correspond to the different places where Dean's being held. You can see strong winds, heavy clouds, rain for days… looks like our little Demon friend is not that keen of the sun."

Sam nodded. "So where is he?"

Ash rubbed his neck. "Be patient, Grasshopper. Anyway, all these climatic phenomena has been occurring in the places where the Demon was, but, the interesting thing is, they started a couple of days before the Demon actually went there."

Bobby intervened then. "How can you possibly know that?"

Ash smiled and showed more reports and data. "Because those phenomena happened exactly at two different places at the same time. This means the Demon would prepare wherever he was planning to take Dean next before actually bringing him there."

Sam nodded. "And it's happening right now, isn't it? You are getting data from two places."

Ash nodded. "I receive it from Alton, Utah, where the rain has been nonstop for already four days. And yesterday they started happening in Milford, Iowa."

Sam looked at Ash. "Iowa? If we leave right now, we can make it there in two days."

Ash nodded and started packing his computer. Bobby opened some cabinets and started picking up some items and throwing them into a bag. Sam nodded. They may still not know how to kill the bastard, but sure as hell they were bringing in the big guns. 'Don't worry Dean, cavalry is on the way' he thought. And really hoped it wasn't too late for his brother.

SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSN

The yellow-eyed Demon appeared out of thin air and walked to the bed were the human was.

"How much longer?" His patience was growing thin. He wanted results and he wanted them now. The lesser Demon vowed and smiled.

"Not much longer. He's already given thought to accept his new reality. With every second he spends in there, his convictions grow thinner and thinner.

The yellow-eyed Demon nodded. "When will he face his choose? I need his brother and I won't be waiting much longer."

"He will have to choose in two days. And he'll choose his new life." a dark laughter filled the room.

**tbc**


	8. Chapter 8

"Dean? Could you open the door, please?"

The doorbell had just ringed and Jess's voice came from the kitchen. Sam had just leave to get some ingredients Jess had forgotten to buy the day before and Jess had authoritarian forbidden him from entering the kitchen while he cooked. Dean had arrived to the conclusion in the days he had been living with Sam and Jess that Jess was some kind of cook freak. Not that he would complain. He had eaten marvelously all week long.

"Sure" he replied and walked to the door, opening it to reveal his parents. His mother immediately engulfed him in a big hug, and Dean returned it fiercely. He had talked to both of them during those past days by phone, but it wasn't the same than standing there with his mother hugging him. Finally she let go so his father could also greet him, and Dean enjoyed the embrace as much as he had enjoyed his mother's. He finally let go to let them walk into the house. His mother took his hand and smiled.

"How are you, Honey?"

"Fine, I'm much better. Yesterday I even went to the buffet, to see how things were going on."

That part was partially true at least. He had spent those past days going to the places which, according to Sam, constituted his life. And the day before he had gone to the buffet he had opened up. His employees had seemed genuinely glad to see him doing so well, and all wished him a quick recovery and that he would come back soon. Dean had felt a warm feeling at this and had actually imagined himself working there. He had had glimpses of himself working with those people and it hadn't been bad. In fact, for all he had bitched about legal jobs during his life, or at least what he had thought was his life, this one was very good.

"Sam told us Matt is taking good care of the business" Dean looked up at his father and nodded.

"Yeah, I think a raise is in check after all he's done. And I think I could start working again on Monday. You know, start catching up with things."

His parents looked worried at that. "Dean, are you sure? May be you should spend a few more days just resting, taking it easy"

Dean looked at his mother's worried face and smiled. "Mom, I've been taking it easy for a week. I've had nothing else to do but watch those damned stupid daytime television programs all week long. I'm gonna go crazy if I don't do something…" he realized what he had said and smile lopsidedly. "Figuratively speaking, of course."

And truth to be told, he still remembered a life full of hunting, with his mother and Jess killed by some Demon, as well as his father and Sam being the only person left in his life, but he also had more and more memories of this life. He could remember his birthday parties from when he was small, the first girl he had kissed, a cutie blonde thirteen years old on the summer camp, whom he had spent most his days, despite a desperate and very bored Sam trying to get him to play with him instead, the proud face of his father when he showed him the letter of acceptance in Stanford and the full ride he had gotten, Sam and him painting the office he had rented to start his own business and hanging the signboard on the outside while Cassie took pictures of the process…

Cassie. He also had remembered a good dose of memories of her. How they had met in the Campus. How, despite his best efforts, she had rejected him three times before finally agreeing to go to the cinema with him, advising him there wouldn't be a goodnight kiss after that, how in fact there had been a goodnight kiss, the first one of many. How they had moved in together a year after their first date. How he had prepared a full romantic evening with Sam and Jess's help and finally, declared to Cassie, slipping the ring on her finger during dessert. He remembered the ceremony. His father standing next to him while he watched Cassie, beautiful in her white dress, walking to him and smiling brightly. Their Honeymoon in Vancouver. He even remembered discussing with Cassie about being parents. They had decided to wait a year. Cassie had died ten months after that day.

"Dean, are you alright?"

His mother's voice shook him out of his stupor. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Do you guys want something to drink?"

"just orange juice and water I'm afraid." Jess stepped out of the kitchen and greeted John and Mary. "Yesterday I forgot to buy drinks. Sam's on it right now"

"Don't worry, we're fine. Can I help you with anything?"

Jess smiled. "Sure, I could use a hand." Dean watched dumbfounded how Jess accepted his mother's help after having refused his sternly. Woman. Who could understand them?

Once alone, John looked at his son. "So, really Dean. How are you coping up?"

Dean looked at his father and saw the worry lines stretched in his face. "I'm getting there" He smiled. "Look, I know I can't fool Sam, so I won't even pretend to fool you. I'm still having memories of…" he faltered. In those past days, the other reality was becoming more and more improbable.

"Of chasing the supernatural?" his father gently supplied for him. Dean nodded. "Yeah, of that. But I also have memories of this life. I'm… I guess I'm confused. But I'm fine. Haven't seen a ghost for days." He had meant that as a joke, but the smile he offered never reached his eyes.

John nodded. "We're just worried about you. You've had a tough time, and we don't want you relapsing."

"I'll try not to." He looked at the door when he heard the lock being picked, and surely enough, Sam appeared two seconds later carrying two paper bags full with the things he had shopped. Dean stood up and took them from him while Sam closed the door with his feet and smiled when he saw his father sitting on the couch. He approached him and they hugged each other.

"How was the drive?"

"Fine, We spent the night in Phoenix and we've had a early start this morning."

"Dad really, you should take a plane to come here"

"No way."

Sam chuckled. "Come on, sooner or later you'll have to overcome this fear of planes"

John growled. "Make it later then."

Dean watched in amusement the argument between the two of them until a memory hit his mind…

_He and Sam were in the middle of an airport full of people. Sam was talking fast and urgent._

_"We're getting on the plane, we need to find that demon, and exorcise it. Look, I'll get the tickets. You just go and get whatever you can out of the trunk, whatever will make it through security. Meet me back here in five minutes." He stopped and looked at Dean. "Are you okay?"_

_Dean made a non-committal shrug before answering. "No, not really."_

_"What? What's wrong?"_

_Dean sighed. This was a conversation he was so not looking to have. " Well, I kind of have this problem with, uh…" He made a gesture with his hand, of a plane taking off and Sam watched him in disbelief. _

_"Flying?"_

_"It's never been an issue until now"_

_Sam snorted. "You're joking, right?"_

_Dean replied with a panicked tone. " Do I look like I'm joking? Why do you think I drive everywhere, Sam?"_

_Sam stared at him for a moment before answering. "Okay, I'll go."_

_"What?"_

_"I'll do this one on my own."_

_Dean changed his tone from panicked to serious in two seconds flat. "What? Are you nuts? You said it yourself, the plane's gonna crash!"_

_" Look, Dean, we can do it together, or I can do this one by myself. I'm not seeing a third option here."_

_Dean looked at him, trying to argue about that, but finding he had nothing to argue with. " Come on! Really?" He sighed again, and finally nodded warily "Man…_

Dean blinked a couple of times to let the memory slip away. He wasn't going to ruin this day because of some memory he was being more and more uncertain with every second it passed that it had ever occurred. He had never been afraid of planes. In fact, he was more than used to take them, first to go visit their family in Lawrence when he started in Stanford and then for business trips. That memory had to be plainly false.

When he saw his brother and father looking at him, he plastered a smile on his face and joined in their conversation.

SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSN

Sam parked the Impala and quickly moved to the truck, opening it and rummaging through the weapons hidden behind the false floor and ignoring the heavy rain and wind. Bobby and Ash stood next to him, somber expressions on their faces. They had needed two days to reach Milford. He paused a moment to look at Ash.

"Are you sure this is the place?"

Ash nodded. "It's got to be. The weather pattern matches completely. And this warehouse here? Is the epicenter of all the phenomena. Not to mention locals says it's been abandoned for more than two years, but some of them has noticed some lights on for the last couple of days."

Sam nodded. He had just let the Demon who had Dean slip through his fingers twice, and he was not gonna let it run away again with his brother.

"Okay. What do we need?" He looked at Bobby as he talked.

"About anything we can bring. The main priority is to destroy de altar. Sam, I'll let you take care of that. Even if you see Dean in there, your mission is the altar. Ash and I will try and exorcise the Demon. It may work or it may not, but at least it will keep it distracted enough so you can destroy the altar and get Dean out of there."

Sam nodded picking up some bottles filled with holy water and passed them to Ash and Bobby, before grabbing a shotgun and cocking it.

"Okay then. Let's find Dean and kill that son of a bitch."

SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSN

The Demon sensed the change in its victim immediately and smiled triumphantly. It had taken more days than usual, but as he had told the Yellow-eyed Demon, he had succeed. The human had succumbed as all did. He took a bowl with a dark liquid from the altar, and after reciting a verse he approached the bed were the human was lying.

"It's time to choose." It said while he dipped a finger into the liquid, and proceeded to draw a pattern with it on the human's forehead.

TBC


	9. Chapter 9

Lunch went as smoothly as it could go and then even some more. Dean found himself laughing with the stories his dad would tell about when they were children, and the more he listened to them, the more he could remember them.

After coffee time and a heated discussion between his mother and Jess about whether Jess needed Mary's help to wash the dishes, Dean let his brother and his father discussing options about which car Sam should buy in order to replace the can-in-wheels he was actually driving, and went out to sit outside, letting the spring sun bath him lazily. Not long after that, he heard the door cracking open and soft steps approaching him.

"Why are you here all alone?" he smiled at his mother's voice and looked at her while she seated next to him.

"I needed to think."

His mother nodded in understanding. "You know you have to choose, right?"

Dean nodded. "This isn't real, right?"

Mary smiled sadly at him. "This can be as real as you want it to be, Dean. Aren't you happy here?"

"I'm… of course I'm happy. You're alive. Dad's alive. Sam is happy with Jess. We're all have pretty decent lives…"

Mary smiled. "And don't forget about not living in crappy motels and being banged up periodically chasing supernatural creatures."

Dean let out a laugh at that. "Not forgetting that, believe me."

Mary sobered up. "Then why you can't choose these? We love you, Dean. We want you with us."

Dean sighed. Nothing in the world would he have liked more than to accept her offer. "My Sam is out there alone. I can't leave him out there alone."

Mary touched gently his cheek. "The Sam of your reality already left you. He's proved he doesn't need you, Dean."

Dean shook his head in denial. "He left to go to Stanford, but he came back, and I can't leave him alone to face the Demon. I promised dad I would protect him…"

"And you did. You killed it, Dean. Don't you remember?"

Dean frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"After the Demon took the Colt away, you managed to recover its case and with Bobby's help, you were able to create another one. You weren't sure it would work, but Sam offered as bait to the Demon and you shot him through the heart. It worked."

Dean closed his eyes as memories filled his mind.

_Dean screamed as the Demon tore at him. He couldn't believe he was actually reliving all that again. This time though, the Demon wore a completely stranger face on him. It was not his father who was killing him in a slow, cold way. He heard Sam screaming to stop, but the Demon just smiled._

"_Not paternal sentimentalism this time, Dean-o. Nobody is going to save you know."_

"_I wouldn't be so quick to say that" The Demon turned around in time to see Sam moving from the wall where the Demon had pushed him immobile. The new Colt was still far from his reach and the Demon was between him and the gun anyway. _

"_Well, well, well, look who has been practicing" the Demon gloated. "Little Sammy is being doing his homework?"_

_Sam maintained a look of utter concentration on his face, though the gun didn't move an inch. The Demon laughed at that. "Shame, it looks like you should practice a little tad more." With that, he pushed once again Sam to the wall and approached. "May be next time you'll get lucky and the Colt will twitch. That would be nice"_

_Sam smiled now, wide and feral. "Who told you it was the Colt I was aiming for?" He looked at some point behind the Demon and it turned, feeling a sudden cold spreading through him. There, standing with an arm wrapped around his midsection, was Dean Winchester, his other hand firmly gripping the Colt and pointing it directly at him. _

_Dean didn't smile when he pulled the trigger, and before suffocating pain became unbearable, the Demon heard him say something. "Go to hell. And stay there. Forever."_

Dean opened up his eyes and gasped. How could he have forgotten something like that? Mary took one of his hands in hers and smiled.

"Now you remember, right?"

Dean nodded. His mother, his father, they had both been avenged. Sam was free of the menace that the Demon presented.

"There's no reason why you can't stay here. Sam is safe."

He looked at Mary. "But he's alone. He said he didn't want to go back to College. I…"

"Dean. Why do you believe he told you that?" Mary sighed. "He knew how you felt about the family, and after what happened to your dad… Sam knew that if he left you again to go to Stanford, it would destroy you. Don't misunderstand me, Dean. Sam loved you so much. He'll feel devastated if you choose this reality, I can assure you that. But I can also assure you, he'll accept it with time, and he'll go back to Stanford, finish his degree and have the normal life he always craved. He won't do any of this if you decide to come back, because, even if you tell him to go, he won't. You're giving him the opportunity of being happy in the long term. And we're also giving you the chance to be happy. You want to continue hunting? There's more than enough paranormal activity here too. It could keep you entertained in the weekends."

Dean laughed. "That simple, huh?"

Mary shook her head. "Not that simple. I told you. Your Sam is going to grief you for a long time. But eventually he'll get over it. And he'll have the normal life he wants to have. Would you deny that to your brother?"

Dean shook his head. "If.. if you were trying to convince me to stay here, why the mental clinic? Why Cassie's death?"

Mary smiled a little. "You're not stupid. If everything had been perfect, you would have been even more suspicious. And I won't lie to you either. This life here, it won't always remain the same. Your father, me, your brother… we can all die. And that doesn't mean it has to happen today or tomorrow, but it will happen."

Dean nodded. "But meanwhile you will be alive."

"We will be alive and we will be with you."

"If I… if I decide to stay, can I at least say goodbye to Sam?"

Mary shook her head. "I'm sorry. But Dean, I'm sure Sam knows how much you love him."

Dean snorted. "He's been the one with the chick-flick moments, not me."

"Are you sure about that?"

Dean frowned and in the end he nodded. "Okay, then."

Mary smiled. "You have to say it Dean."

Dean breathed deeply. 'I'm sorry Sammy. It's for your own good. I love you.' He thought before actually speaking out loud. "I choose to stay…"

SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSN

Sam broke the door with a well placed kick and entered the dim room. He, Ash and Bobby had searched for the whole warehouse and finally, they had discovered a trap on the floor. Once they opened it, a set of stairs had guided them to the door Sam just had opened. Inside, a man turned around to watch them, but before he could say or do anything, Bobby had splashed him with holy water. Smoke rose from the parts where the liquid had contacted with the man, but Sam's only focus was the altar. He heard Bobby and Ash subduing the Demon while he run to the altar and without giving it a second thought, turned it upside down, crashing everything that was on it to the floor. Turning around to give Bobby the thumbs up, he saw Dean lying in a filthy cot and all thoughts about the Demon were forgotten as he rushed to his brother's side.

"Dean!"

SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSN

Mary's face changed from a complacent smile to a look of pure horror in less than a second.

"No! This cannot be happening!"

Dean looked at her confused, forgetting about what he was going to say. "Mom? What's…"

Mary stood up suddenly and that's when Dean also noticed the changes. The stairs, the porch, the street… everything was loosing it's sharpness. It was like if some objects were merging with some others. He frowned.

"What's going on?"

Mary turned and looked at him, but not with the loving face he had seen until now, but with a frantic and desperate one instead. "Say it Dean. Say you choose this. Say it NOW!"

Dean actually took a step back at that. "Mom?"

But Mary wasn't even listening to him. She was talking to someone apparently only her could see. "Not fair! It was already mine! You've ruined everything!"

Ruin what? That's when he heard the other voice he knew so well. "Dean!" He turned around quickly but Sam's voice didn't seem to be coming from the apartment. In fact, the apartment was nothing more than a blur, like everything else. Dean walked away from it, blinking as everything seemed to dissolve. Again, Sam's voice came to him clear and loud amidst all the confusion. "Dean! Wake up! Dean!"

The desperation in Sam's voice made Dean wanted to scream he was already awake, but somehow he knew he wasn't. A hand gripped viciously his shoulder and spun him around. His mother's face was a like a mask of pure hatred.

"I've given you the chance of a happy life and you've destroyed it. Next time I'll show you what's hell like so you'll know what your father is suffering everyday"

And with that she disappeared in a black mist and Sam's voice came to him again. "Dean please, I can't do it without you. Wake up…"

Without thinking, Dean started running towards the voice. 'Not going to let you, Sammy…"

SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSN

"Dean, please…"

Sam knew he was crying, but truth to be told, he couldn't care less. He also had heard Bobby and Ash cursing and Bobby shouting something. A quick look over his shoulder showed him the Demon had apparently escaped. But they had Dean. Dean whom Sam needed to wake up.

"Dude… you've better not be wetting my shirt with tears…"

Sam looked at Dean again and breath relieved when he saw his eyes open, if a little unfocused.

"Man, it is good to see you!" Sam exclaimed, helping Dean into a sitting position, and Dean was more than happy for the help, all his limbs seemed to be made of jell-o right now.

"Boys, we've got to go. We don't know when this son of a bitch is going to be back."

Sam nodded and helped Dean to stand up, and slowly, they made their way outside.

SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSN

The Yellow-Eyed Demon watched everything and cursed. So the Winchester Boy had managed once again to escape his fate.

He watched as his minions tortured the Demon for his failure. He didn't take failure lightly, and he didn't care why he had failed. What mattered where the facts. And the facts were that Dean Winchester was free and that while that happened, seducing Sam into the darkness would be near impossible. But after all, he thought, how many times can that boy avoid dead? There would be more occasions. Next time he wouldn't fail.

tbc…

**A/N: Whoah. I can believe we're already here. Another chapter (the epilogue one, because leaving the story like that would just be wrong) and that's it. I want to thank you all you guys again for having read, reviewed and encouraged the story. You're the best! ;) **


	10. Chapter 10

Sam finished his cup of coffee, and a glance towards Bobby told him he'd find Dean in the same place he had been for the last week. Nonetheless, Sam looked outside and sure, there was Dean, working in the Impala. Sam wondered what else could need to be reviewed with the car since Dean spent most of the week since he had been rescued there.

"You need to talk to him" Sam turned and looked at Bobby.

"I've tried. I've tried so hard, but he closes up every time I bring the subject of what happened to him up."

"Then try harder." Bobby looked at him. "This boy is wasting himself. I don't know what that Demon showed him, but whatever it was, it was powerful enough that he was willing to sacrifice everything to stay in whatever was the place it showed him."

"I know." Putting the cup in the sink, Sam put on a jacket to protect himself against the morning chill that still hovered on the parking lot, and went outside. He found his brother under the hood of the Impala, a look of deep concentration on his face.

"Dean."

Dean paused, spared him a look and returned to the task in hand.

"Bobby said you hadn't had breakfast yet." It was a lie, Sam knew, but he also was sure Dean hadn't eaten yet, so he did not feel any shame in using it.

"I'm not hungry, Sam."

"You're never hungry. You should eat anyway." Sam pressed on.

"Later."

Sam sighed. Dean could be the most stubborn son of a bitch to walk the Earth. "Dean, I really think we should talk about what happened to you."

Dean didn't even flinch as he continued examining the Impala engine. "Well, I really think we shouldn't."

"Dean, I know you must feel…" The sound of the hood being closed abruptly almost made Sam jump. He looked at his brother, now looking at him ferociously.

"What do you know, Sam? How I feel? What I saw? What I wanted? Then why don't you tell me?" the angry words were spat but somehow Sam saw it wasn't him who Dean was angry with, but with himself. He raised his hands pleadingly.

"You're right. I don't know, and I want to help you and I don't know how, and you won't let me, and you so need to be helped even you don't believe it…"

Dean looked at him for a long time before finally sighing. "Sammy…"

"Dean, please. Let me help you."

Dean turned around and sit on the hood of the car. Sam sat down next to him, and waited patiently. Dean would talk when he was ready.

"We were normal."

Sam looked at Dean. "What do you mean?"

"We didn't hunt. We…" Dean looked at Sam. "Mom was alive."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh indeed." Dean looked in front of him once again. "Dad was alive too. And I… I had gone to College." He paused and looked at Sam, smirking briefly. "You had gone too. Looks like you get to be a geek wherever the reality is"

"Jerk" Sam said it chuckling and Dean smiled briefly. "So, what did you study?"

"Engineering. I was a fucking Engineer, can you believe it?"

Sam nodded. Truth was, he could. Dean had always been good repairing electronic stuff, and cars and… well, anything in fact.

"I was married."

Now Sam's eyebrows nearly shot to the back of his head. "You're joking!"

Dean shook his head. "It was Cassie."

Sam smiled. Cassie had made a good impression on him, giving his brother the right kind of attitude he needed. He was about to say something when Dean's voice interrupted him.

"She died."

"Died? How?"

"In a fire. At least that's what everybody told me. Looks like I had some kind of nervous breakdown and I ended up being institutionalized."

Sam frowned "If that's so, why would you have wanted to…"

Dean shrugged.

"Dean, come on…"

"You were happy in there."

Sam's eyebrows rose again. "Happy to see you institutionalized? Boy, I was a little twisted…"

"You were not happy about that, you jerk. It's…"

Comprehension dawned on Sam at that. "I had a normal life."

Dean nodded and Sam pressed on. "Was… was Jess alive?"

Dean hesitated for a moment before nodding slowly again, and Sam sighed. So in whatever dream the Demon had lulled Dean into, Dean was willing to stay because of his happiness.

Sensing his brother's thoughts, Dean interrupted him again. "Don't get all your wheels running in there." Sam looked at him. "It's true that seeing you happy… made it worth it, but I was also happy in there. Mom and Dad were alive, I had a job, a legal one at that which I could see myself enjoying, you and Jess were also happy…" Dean sighed. "I didn't forget about this reality. And it's not like I wanted to leave you alone, Sammy. But… I figured out that if I stepped out the equation you'd end up returning to Stanford, finish your degree…"

"You stupid" Dean shot a glance at Sam, surprised. "I wouldn't return to Stanford for all the gold in the world if that meant losing you. And what about the Demon? You know? The one who killed Mom? And Jess? And dad?"

"I thought we had killed him. I had the memory of killing it. Hell Sam, I still do have it!"

Sam breathed deeply. "Dean, that wasn't real. Any of that."

"I know. It still doesn't change the fact I was ready to choose that life. To leave you all alone."

"you didn't have any choice, Dean."

Dean laughed sarcastically. "Oh, but I had. I had the choice, Sam."

Sam shook his head. "Look, from my point of view, you didn't. That Demon knew exactly what buttons it needed to push so you would choice that reality."

"What do you mean?"

"Come on Dean. A reality with mom and dad, with all of us together as any family? With normalcy? You can bitch all you want about not wanting a normal life with a house with white fences, but I know you better than that. But that's not the only reason you'd stayed. In fact, if that had been the only thing they offered you, you would chosen to return here. But they also showed you that I didn't need you anymore in here and that I'd be more happy without you. And even it had shown you Hell and told you to choose between Hell and your life, you would have chosen Hell if you thought I'd been happy with your decision."

Dean opened up his mouth to interrupt, but Sam would have none of that. "But you know what, Dean? I need you. I don't need a normal life, because even if I manage to get that, I'd always know what's out there lurking in the dark. I can't and I won't have a normal life. What I want is what we do, what dad do, and I want it with you by my side. I can't tell you more clearly than this."

Dean looked at him for some long seconds before slowly nodding and breaking into a smile. "Woah, Sammy. Too much for the no chick-flick moments rule, huh?"

Sam barked out a laugh, and, quite unexpectedly hugged Dean.

"You're really, really pushing it, Sammy" was Dean's answer, although he hugged back his brother quite fiercely nonetheless.

"Shut up, Dean. I need it. I missed you."

Dean was happy to let Sam continue hugging him for a few more moments. It gave him the time he needed to regain his composure and force the tears which threaten to spill out back in control. When finally Sam let him go, both of them were smiling, and Sam realized it was the first time Dean was smiling that sincerely since they had found him a week ago.

"So, do you think you've worked out enough on the stupid car and I can start digging for our next gig?"

Dean looked offended but Sam knew better. "Watch it, or you're walking to our next destination."

Sam laughed and retreated to the house "I'm trembling with fear, Dean."

Dean watched as he got into the house and sighed. A heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders and everything was back to normal. Back to what it should be.

**FIN**


End file.
